As a child, I adored the 1990 "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and its sequel, "The Secret of the Ooze." And after re-watching the films in preparation for the reboot, I was reminded why I loved them so much to begin with. Even 24 years later, the turtles are still charming, the ninja action is still cartoony, and Jim Henson's animatronics still hold up surprisingly well.

But I had to ask myself, without the '90s nostalgia and childhood memories, are they still good films?

Eh, not really.

The plots are thin, the jokes are dated and the turtles themselves don't have distinct personalities. If the four turtles all wore the same colored mask, you wouldn't be able to distinguish which turtle is which. The films had the tone of a "Power Rangers" episode and April O'Neil, the Turtles' news reporter friend, was nothing more than a damsel in distress archetype.

And anyone remember the Vanilla Ice dance sequence? The one where Shredder was blown out of the building by a guitar solo? Yeah, not so great.

In updating the characters, the visual effects and the one-liners, this reboot from director Jonathan Liebesman and producer Michael Bay is a breath of fresh air for the Turtles.

Wanting to catch her big break, O'Neil heads down to the docks to investigative the crimes of the feared gang, The Foot Clan. Suddenly, she witnesses a group of masked figures take out the clan. When she tries to explain what she saw to her boss and coworkers, they scoff at her findings.

Later, she sees a group of people running from the subway. She heads into the scene trying to find proof of the existence of these masked vigilantes. It is here we meet the 6-feet tall, pizza-loving turtles. There's Raphael (Alan Ritchson), Donatello (Jeremy Howard), Michelangelo (Noel Fisher) and Leonardo (Pete Ploszek, voiced by Johnny Knoxville). With the help of O'Neil, the turtles must save the city and defeat Shredder and the Foot Clan before they execute their diabolical plans.

One improvement with these turtles is that they have clear personalities and character traits. By the end of the film, you may not know which one is Donatello and which one is Raphael, but at least you'll know that "the nerdy one" and "the tough one" aren't the same turtle.

Their appearance is grungier, scarier and bulkier this time around. For some reason, they almost look more like humans than turtles.

The motion capture technology and CGI are equally immersive and frustrating. When scenes are completely CGI, they're quite effective. There are a couple fantastic action sequences, most notably one where the turtles glide and fight their way down a snowy mountain. In contrast, scenes that mix real life and CGI look distracting and fake.

For the first 30 minutes of the film, the spotlight is all on Fox's April O'Neil. Coming into this remake, most of us know who the turtles are, but who is April? Her portrayal in the past has been shoddy at best, and Fox's rendition is surprisingly charismatic and likable. By the time the turtles come into play, there's already a connection and history between the green heroes and their yellow-jacket-wearing friend.

Being a Michael Bay-produced film, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" does have some hints of the filmmaker's presence. The film looks overly polished and glossy and there's product placement galore. In one sequence at the end of the film, the turtles use their shells to cover the breasts of a Victoria's Secret model.

Even with its flaws, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is still a fun film that brought me back to the nostalgia of the '90s turtles. It's just a shame this generation will never get a "Turtles" movie with Vanilla Ice.